Columbia University has agreed to a list of demands of US President Donald Trump’s demands, in return, in exchange for negotiations to restore $ 400 million federal funds, “citing Jewish students’ failure to rescue Jewish students”.
In addition to other privileges, the university has agreed to empower 36 campus police officers with special powers to ban facial masks and arrest students.
A new senior proost will also be installed to monitor the Middle East, South Asian and African studies and the Center for Palestine study.
So what happened and what Colombia agreed to do?
Why has the US government demand Colombia?
Last year, the school was an important center during the campus protests that swept the United States when Israel’s war against Gaza increased. On April 30, a group of educational building, students, staff and former students occupied the Hamilton Hall on the campus in Columbia before being cleared by the New York Police at the request of the university leadership.
The Trump administration has taken a strong view for those involved in the demonstration last year, promising to deport students in their first week. Earlier this month, it canceled Colombia’s federal funding and released a list of demands that the university should agree before the restoration of funds.
This month, Colombian student Mahmoud Khalil, 29, who played a key role in organizing Palestinian supporters, was arrested by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who was arrested by the university residence in New York’s Upper Manhattan.
Homeland’s security secretary Christie Nim released a news about the arrest, “It is an honor to be given a visa to live and study in the United States. When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privileges should be canceled, and you should not be in this country.”
On March 10, US officials sent a letter to 60 educational institutions, including Columbia, in which they were informed that they were investigating “anti -harassment and discrimination” and if they did not protect Jewish students, they warned of possible measures, saying that the law enforcement was reported in this regard. , Suspended or canceled.
As a deadline to meet the rest of the government’s demands for Colombia on Friday night, the university sent a new memo to the US administration, and said it had agreed. Critics say the move can essentially change the right to educational independence and free speech in the United States.
What did Columbia agree to do?
In his memo to the Trump administration on Friday night, Columbia University filed new rules and regulations that will now be implemented on his campus and has introduced plans to reform its discipline.
Facial masks will be banned, protesters will need to identify themselves, security officers with special powers to arrest students should be appointed, and the departments presenting courses in the Middle East should be reviewed and monitoring them through a new senior proost.
The Trump administration had demanded that the school be placed in the Middle East, the South Asian and African studies department for five years in “educational recipients”.
In the memo, the University said: “All these measures are underway and their aim is to further the basic mission of Colombia: providing a safe and promoted environment for research and education while protecting its commitment to educational freedom and institutional integrity.”
To meet the demands of the government, by the end of Friday, US media reported that the Colombian trustee has been behind closed doors for several days, some members of the board are deeply concerned that the university has been educated, according to the Freedom of Freedom, for its moral authority and federal funds.
Agreeing with demands does not guarantee the withdrawal of federal funds. The Trump administration said fulfilling its demands was merely a “prerequisite for formal talks”.
A new letter from Colombia to Trump Admin lists the demands for “continuous financial relations” with the US government.
Ham Hamilton Hall Better or Remove Students for Protests
– “Time, place and style rules”
Masmsk restriction
“” Zionist opponent “address discrimination
Efform- Different entrance
4 pic.twitter.com/djcc31VQ2Q– Prem Thakur (@Prem_Thakar) March 14, 2025
How has workers and experts respond?
Critics say the government’s demands are much higher than traditional compliance or policies, and they are equivalent to trying to stop Palestinian supporters.
Sarah Leh Whatson, executive director of democracy for the Arab world, said how these conditions work to universities, what they teach and who is allowed to speak is equivalent to political control.
He emphasized the threat of such a federal boundary, saying that compliance with Colombia’s demands “will remove a terrifying ideology and educational freedom throughout the United States”.
“In American history, we have never seen such an unarmed attack on the American civil society, including our constitutional freedoms and reservations,” Vitton told Al Jazeera.
According to him, now the worst thing to do in universities can “be quiet and think that they will not be next”. He added that compliance with the government’s demands “will open the door for equal measures against every other university in the country”.
He said that the future of educational conversation itself is at stake.
“The main driving mission of these attacks is not only the speech but also the first and most important to study Palestinian rights and history,” he said. “This is about creating an environment where universities can only teach content that a particular administration considers acceptable.”
Al -Shabaka: Tariq Kenny Shiva, a US policy partner in the Palestinian policy network, termed the administration’s move “absolutely ridiculous” and added that the university “is selling its justification and freedom effectively as an educational institution”.
“For an administration that is so dedicated to reducing the influence of the federal government in private affairs from universities to women’s bodies, from universities to women’s bodies, now interfering with university behavior is a clear example of an excessive interference.”
He argued that the Trump administration and its supporters were “losing a debate about Israel” at the Israeli supporter’s college campus and resorting to forcing them to stop the talks completely.
“There is no doubt that Trump is applying a template that his administration will use against someone who will oppose his right -wing agenda,” he said. “But it is important to highlight that it is deliberately targeting people who support Palestinian rights and criticize Israel.”
Professor Jonathan Zimerman, who is a graduate of Colombia and now a historian at the University of Pennsylvania, told Reuters that it was a “tragic day for the university”. He said: “Historically, it has no idea.
“The move was” the largest attack in educational freedom, freedom of speech and institutional sovereignty that we have seen since the Macarathi era, “said Todd Wilfson, president of the American Association of University Professors.
Will students be deported?
The government is definitely trying to do so but will face legal challenges.
In recent weeks, reports of immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents appearing on campus have made many anxious, and lawyers groups say the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is part of a wider model for targeting protesters. Khalil, who is a permanent resident of the United States and whose American wife is eight months of pregnant, was first detained in New York and later in Louisiana. The Trump administration said it intends to snatch it from its green card.
Khalil has presented a legal challenge, and has argued that the attempt to deport him violates his rights of free speech and appropriate action, which is guaranteed under the US Constitution. This week, a federal court rejected Trump’s attempt to reject the case.
“These are serious allegations and arguments that are not doubtful, guaranteed a cautious review by the court, it is the basic constitutional principle that all persons in the United States deserve the appropriate process of law,” said Judge Faromon in his judgment.
Last week, another student at Columbia University protesters, Liaka Cordia, was arrested and accused of promoting his F -One student visa. He was detained by ice agents and was detained on charges of exile. Another foreign student, Ranjani Srinivasan, India’s Ranjani, had canceled his student visa to participate in the wrong killings of Hamas, “supporting Hamas”.
Earlier this week, government agents detained Badar Khan Suri, an Indian post documentary Fellow Badr Khan Suri, an Indian post on the Understanding of Prince Al -Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian. On Wednesday, Trusia McLAflin, an assistant secretary of the Homeland Security (DHS) Department, has been placed on social media for deportation in Louisiana on charges of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting counterism”.
Khalid Elgundi, a scholar in Georgetown, who focused on Palestinian Israeli affairs, said the implementation efforts appeared to be active in the “a different circle”, beyond the protest.
“It seems that this person has been targeted, not for his activity,” he said. But there is only doubt about some ideas. “
Legal efforts are underway to prevent universities from sharing information about students with the government.
Earlier this week, the US District Court for the southern district of New York approved a request for a legal order to the US Islamic Relations Council, which prevented Colombia from sharing students’ information with federal agencies without any action. The decision has come to the fore among the growing concerns that universities can be pressured to hand over sensitive figures to students, especially people from Muslim or Arab backgrounds.
